“Composed in a spare, lucid, functional prose ... that is admirably free of academic jargon, [The Principle of Duty] provides a first-rate analysis of where contemporary liberalism went wrong intellectually. It should be required reading in any college course on modern political philosophy.”

“This cry from the heart about the perceived failure of liberty, the current crisis of the civic order, and some of what duty to the civic order entails deserves attention.”

“We all owe David Selbourne a considerable debt. His theme—that as individual citizens we are responsible for the well-being of the civic order to which we all belong—is important. ”

“Timely and compelling . . . Selbourne’s solution is to reassert an argument which both the liberal tradition and the common law have long recognized, but has been progressively ignored: that people have duties to themselves, their fellows and society, which are fully the moral equivalent of their rights . . . He has tried to think his way not just into the theory of a better social order, but of its practicalities. There is much in what he says that demands and deserves very careful thought.” –Financial Times

“Selbourne’s arresting, irascible and sometimes moving book is an important contribution to political thought, made at one of the turning-points in the history of political discourse in Britain.”avid Selbourne a considerable debt. His theme—that as individual citizens we are responsible for the well-being of the civic order to which we all belong—is important. ” –Times Literary Supplement

“Rejecting both the doctrinaire right and the doctrinare left, David Selbourne’s ideas about civic virtue have struck a powerful chord . . .”

“[A] timely and important topic in Western society in general and America in particular. This is a thoughtful and provocative work, ... likely to be a source of conversation and debate among American academicians....” –Perspectives on Political Science

David Selbourne has been a British Commonwealth Fellow at the University of Chicago, Aneurin Bevan Memorial Fellow, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi, and has taught the history of ideas at Ruskin College, Oxford. He is the author of numerous books, including The Spirit of the Age (1993), Death of the Dark Hero (1990), The Principle of Duty (2001), and translator of Jacob of Ancona’s The City of Light (1997).